Vasil Kisil & Partners Supports Vkursi Zemli Ukraine Project on Digitalization of the Land Bank in Ukraine. Sumy Region

On 14 June 2021, Vasil Kisil & Partners jointly with Vkursi Agro presented the nationwide project Vkursi Zemli Ukraine: Digitalization of the Land Bank in Ukraine.  

Vkursi Zemli Ukraine is a nationwide project for digitalization of lands outside settlements. The digitalization and analysis process involves the use of information on land plots from state registers, satellite monitoring data, GIS and Big Data technologies. 

The objective of the project is to provide individuals, communities, agribusinesses, and governmental authorities with as much information and analytical data as possible on key aspects of land relations in each region of Ukraine, namely about the largest owners and users of lands, the actual area of lands cultivated by agricultural enterprises, the risks of land use offences, the tax revenues short received by each region from land use, and about many other issues.

The survey conducted in Sumy Region has revealed that regional communities’ estimated annual budget losses and shortfalls resulting from the shadow lease of agricultural lands and other factors of inefficient accounting and management in the field of land relations amount to UAH 788 million. Risky lands in the region cover the area of 347 thousand hectares, which is 14.5% of the total area of Sumy Region. 

Volodymyr Igonin, Partner with Vasil Kisil & Partners, has commented: “Land is of special importance to Ukraine. Spanning over 600 thousand sq.km., Ukraine is the largest country in Europe. According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Ukraine has the largest area of arable land (over 33.5 million hectares) relative to the total area of the state. Ukraine is also well-known for the fertility of its black soils, accounting for one-quarter of the total worldwide stock. Such invaluable resources have contributed to Ukraine occupying a worthy place in the global agricultural markets. In terms of exports of corn, wheat, oil, etc., Ukraine persistently ranks among the leading exporters.

However, the efficiency of agriculture and yield per hectare in our country are lower compared to those of leading agricultural producers. On a global scale, the Ukrainian agricultural sector lacks state-of-the-art technologies, investments, developed infrastructure – most notably, irrigation systems. Still, Ukraine can boast examples of high-tech businesses using cutting-edge advancements of the progress – from precision farming to unmanned tractors. Such examples, along with the developed IT sector in Ukraine, convince that unique natural resources combined with state-of-the-art technologies will qualitatively improve the efficiency of agricultural production. We hope that the Ukrainian land digitalization project will help achieve this objective.”

The project is implemented jointly by the team of experts of Vkursi Agro and SmartFarming with the support of UKRSIBBANK BNP Paribas Group and Vasil Kisil & Partners and under the auspices of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.